It Is Time To Legalize All Drugs

I have a right to ingest/smoke whatever I want and to explore the contents of “my own mind” in the process, so long as I am not hurting anyone else, even if it kills me. This is a human right, albeit one that few people think of.

Imagine if you had the right to have a shed in your backyard but you didn’t have a right to explore the contents of that shed. That would be a little insulting, wouldn’t it?

Those who want to limit our mental exploration are to be held highly suspect. Those same people, for instance, often advocate that perfectly normal and healthy individuals go on 7 psychotropic pharmaceuticals at the same time. Limiting access to information is usually a form of domination.

We don’t truly have access to our own minds right now. Some of us do, but there is a huge effort to dumb all of us down and re-engineering us. Fluoride in our water supply destroying our third eye (pineal gland) is just one of many examples of this.

Decriminalization of pot is a sad effort to appease control freaks. I see no reason to demand anything short of full-on legalization (of all drugs).

The nanny-state should get off of our backs. Waving its finger, the state pretends it’s looking out for our best interest but half the time it’s dealing the very drugs that it’s punishing people for possessing.

State-owned education and the mainstream media are the mouthpieces of the government and that is bad enough but we should now (or sometime soon) also deal with the reality that social engineers have prohibited specific substances precisely because those substances have, for thousands of years (in many cases), helped people become more self-aware, helped people discover that the ego is an illusion and that the trueself knows no borders.

Whether this discovery happens rapidly via a deep introspective journey fomented by a heroic dose of magic mushrooms or whether a slower but slightly similar process unfolds over time with the aid of the occasional toke of a flower that allows one to relax and decompress, the name of the game is self-discovery and elites seem to passionately hate this game.

While this is technically an insane and sinister state of affairs – and, of course, those guilty should be held accountable – I personally think we need to clean up our act a little bit and look in the mirror, especially with respect to how we treat each other and how we dominate the other creatures that inhabit this planet. Otherwise we will have simply learned nothing, can easily be shown to be inconsistent and at that point we cannot expect to be taken seriously.

Misguided Rage

If you are one of those people who puts their blind trust in a government, you might find yourself at a soccer riot, filled with rage, fighting with someone over a ball going into a net, ignoring the true culprits behind the shaping of your depressing life, all just because you listened when they (government/society) told you “we know what’s best for you” and because you had not yet made the decision to face the reality that you had no sound reason to believe them (I’m not saying it’s an easy decision, I’m just saying it’s a decision… one that you likely can still make).

The pharmaceutical industry makes more money when people are ignorant of the fact that marijuana & hemp can replace a lot of the “traditional” drugs out there (and indeed, hemp does represent a massive threat to the oil industry as well) but at the end of the day elites are really giving each other high fives over the fact that they’ve more-or-less successfully banned one of the most awesome things in the world.

Pot is illegal because pot is absolutely amazing and has the ability to dramatically improve many different aspects of your life in a variety of different ways.

It’s great that people are fighting so hard for patients to be able to get effective medicine, but where does that put those of us who just want to have a good time with that same medicine? And wouldn’t those who want their medicine also benefit from the efforts of those who want total freedom to enjoy that which is harmless?

Do I have to sit here and wish I get cancer or some other serious ailment just so I can one day finally enjoy smoking a joint in peace? This is absurd.

“If you’re gonna have a pro-drug argument, start the argument where it starts: I have the right to do what ever the hell I want to my own body, if it kills me slowly, happy for me, f*ck you, “clack clack” (miming a pump-action shotgun) stop me!”

When I came across the headline, “Snoop Dogg’s marijuana drug bust highlights idiocy of the failed War on Drugs,” I was happy that Natural News was reporting on such a blatant attack on individual rights. I mean Snoop did have a medical marijuana license, when all is said and done, and these mixed messages about pot are getting ridiculous. When I finally had time to actually read the article a week later, however, I was shocked and amazed.

As a disclaimer, I will say that I have been an enormous fan of Natural News for years (and probably will continue to be). In the past I’ve even sent the editor, Mike Adams, a letter of gratitude for putting Natural News on the map.

I’m grateful to be able to upload some of my videos on Natural News’s video section as well and I’m going to continue to have Natural News’ RSS feed on the Potent News website because I value a lot of the other content that Natural News reports on with regard to cancer-cures, food freedom, the highly detrimental effects of vaccines, other health issues, the growing police state, etc., but I want to make it known that I now find myself very confused by Mike Adams’ take on marijuana and drug laws in general.

I do have a lot of respect for Mike Adams but this issue is one that has deeply affected my life in a number of ways and so I will not hesitate to be blunt.

A Drug Court For Pot?

The article states,

Ideally, marijuana possession should be de-criminalized to free up law enforcement resources for more important tasks (and to take the ego out of the DEA, which is a rogue government agencygang that openly violates state law).

Barring that, the next best option is to pass state laws that put marijuana possession under the jurisdiction of a drug court, not a criminal court. In fact, this idea of approaching drug possession from a health care point of view (rather than a criminal point of view) works for all street drugs: meth, heroin, cocaine, etc.

Later the article elaborates on the drug court:

Drug problems needed to be treated in a “drug court” where court options include:

• Mandatory drug detox treatment.

• Mandatory drug counseling.

• Nutritional support programs for detox and overcoming drug addiction.

• Paying of relatively small fines, similar to traffic tickets.

• Regular drug testing for a limited period of time to determine compliance.

My first thought is, “are you joking?”

My second thought is, “why not make all drugs legal?”

This probably only sounds radical to those who have a residue of a holier-than-thou attitude whereby they think they know what’s best for everyone. To me, a drug court for pot sounds radical.

Freedom is an all-or-nothing thing. You can’t be a half-slave.

As many people have pointed out, decriminalization is a flimsy concept. I almost find the concept offensive. It’s saying you can have “small amounts”. What a tease! There is no dignity in decriminalization and it only delays the inevitable.

Also, I don’t know if Mike Adams forgot, but it’s worth mentioning that marijuana is not only “far less harmful” than alcohol, as he put it, but marijuana is also a medicine that treats over 100 conditions (1,2). I don’t say that as an argument for legalization. This is simply something which Natural News has covered before but which is apparently irrelevant now (although, to be fair, he didn’t write the specific Natural News article I’m thinking of).

Personally, I think it would have been ideal if Mike Adams mentioned operation Fast and Furious (which he has covered before), as globalist-funded coke gangs spilling into the US with guns given to them by the ATF and the White House would definitely be relevant to a discussion of the root causes of drug-culture.

The current marijuana situation is a joke. The whole drug war is a joke. They ship the narcotics in and then bust us for using them. There’s no bargaining with these people. If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.

This whole thing is a very complex issue and deserves a lot of attention. We are at a particular stage in our evolution. Our relationship to each other and our relationship to the world is reflected accordingly. We cannot reasonably hope to reclaim our humanity while simultaneously allowing others to use every excuse they can come up with to dictate the parameters of our behavior and mental exploration. We do not need to be treated like infants.

Let’s pause for a moment to examine one thing. When you spend your time with friends and family, you start to sound like them. We all know that.

Similarly, we are trapped, so to speak, in a Matrix-like world that is constructed by unseen cockroaches, and so those cockroaches have rubbed off on us.

I mean, it seems like the powers-that-be think they know what’s best for everyone and everything. It follows that we’ll mimic their dominating ways when exposed to the constructed reality they have manufactured for us (at least a bit, in some ways, I mean they’re not our “friends” but you catch my drift).

It’s not all bad. Conversely, the evil scumbags must also have the good people rub off on them. It’s only a matter of time before the nanny-state gains a bit of sanity and we all understand where we’re all coming from.

Rewind

While doing more research, I found an earlier Natural News article about Willie Nelson’s arrest for pot, where Mike Adams advocated legalization (and taxation… I don’t understand why we should tax this… maybe I’m missing something but I’m going to ignore this for now).

Legalization seems to be a much more sound position but I don’t know why a little more than a year later Mike Adams became content demanding the above mentioned de-criminalization / drug court (which I feel represents a compromise).

In this article on the Willie Nelson bust, Mike writes,

For the record, I’m not a marijuana smoker, and I would never encourage any individual to take up such a habit unless they had a legitimate medical need for pain relief. However, I am totally against the continued persecution of individuals who buy, possess or consume this medicinal herb. They harm no one but themselves, and smoking marijuana produces side effects that are far milder than drinking alcohol.

I find the “harm no one but themselves” part to be a little pompous. Personally, I would recommend that everyone try it at least once. There, I said it. I’m also not the only person who’s said it.

Legendary comedian Bill Hicks has joked that marijuana should not only be legalized but should also be mandatory (fast-forward to 3:45):

Comedian Kat Williams also gets the message across very succinctly:

It helps me make visual art and music, it helps me write articles, and above all, it helps me be more patient and understanding with people. Perhaps as a result of a combination of all of these things, it helps me be more self-aware and allows me to not waste my energy fighting other peoples’ battles.

Influential writer Alan Watts was largely responsible for popularizing Zen in the west and he has said that a lot of the problems in life occur simply from not thinking things through all the way to the end.

Marijuana helps many people slow down and not panic so much, to the point that we can actually think for once. State-owned education seeks to accomplish the opposite of this and that’s an important thing to keep in mind. Your government wants you in the dark about substances that make you less afraid.

Mike Adams goes on to write things which are indeed 100% accurate but which nevertheless don’t capture the whole picture:

Why is marijuana criminalized in America? The answer is simply that marijuana prohibition is the cornerstone of the American police state. Keeping this herb illegal keeps millions of people employed in law enforcement who otherwise wouldn’t have jobs. It keeps the prison industry strong and gives cops a reason to search vehicles.

It even gives law enforcement officers yet another excuse to hold “terrorism drills.” Seriously: A recent terrorism drill in Northern California imagined pot heads taking over Shasta Dam and blowing up vehicles (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle…). These cops must have a lot of free time on their hands to dream up these wild (and highly improbable) scenarios. But keeping marijuana criminalized allows them to spend more taxpayer money running these useless drills that, after all, keep them all well paid.

At the same time, it causes billions of dollars a year to flow into the underground black market economy — money that would otherwise be used to raise tax revenues for states. (http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy…)

Yes, these are all true reasons. In fact, even in Arnprior, Ontario, Canada, back in April of 2011, police threw a flash-bang grenade into a guy’s son’s bedroom window (for suspicion of some pot and a weapon) and the guy even turned out to be the wrong guy. The cops were at the wrong house. If that man’s son was asleep in that bed he could have been killed.

I agree that police do need an excuse to push people around these days but they’re not just picking some random excuse. It’s not just a happy coincidence that this particular excuse has to do with a drug which, as I mentioned before, helps people make art and write (books, plays, films, documentaries, reports, articles, etc.), helps them think/meditate, and helps to dissolve the ego. Did I mention it helps people love each other? Is that a medicinal benefit?

A Mountain of Laws

It’s worth noting that I was surprised to even find out that there was a time when people could drive cars without a “driver’s license” (and then I was surprised at the fact that I was surprised). Many years ago when I visited France I was shocked to see that their laws are such that they allowed 16 year old kids to purchase alcohol at the corner store. They allowed you to drink in a car as long as you were a passenger and not the driver. They also allowed people to drink outside on the streets.

In Canada, the laws were a lot less lenient and yet I saw more car accidents, more teenagers getting drunk for the sake of getting drunk, more drinkers making fools of themselves on the streets, etc.

We must get rid of this idea that we have some sort of right to put a law on everything, every human activity. Simply saying, “It’s for the greater good”, is not sufficient. Those who purport this overreach often say they’re doing so for our best interest but any sensible person has witnessed the pattern that has emanated from the tentacles of the machine/cabal driving this accelerating global tyranny and it is an ugly pattern.

In fact, when one reads the writings of influential elites like Edward Bernays, one gets the overwhelming impression that he’s trying to convince everyone that if they didn’t allow society to be run by “men we’ve never heard of” tragedy would follow. Compartmentalization is the kind of thing that allows a disgusting Brave New World like ours to run smoothly.

Of course, by running smoothly I mean that we remain seemingly eternally ignorant of our true nature and of what/who we really are, our astronomical potential for true progress, and we get closer and closer to assimilating the traits of those who dominate us, we continue to allow our energy to be drained and our lifeblood to be sucked out of us, until we no longer recognize ourselves. That’s what “running smoothly” really is to people like Edward Bernays.

I’d like to think that now, in 2012, we’re past this naive attitude and can see the organic nature of our existence.

Not everybody is a good drinker but laws aren’t the solution to that. I don’t know if there is a “top-down” solution to that kind of problem. I have a strong hunch that things like that come down to personal responsibility. You can’t make a law, for example, saying “everybody is allowed to drink… except Jeff… Jeff sucks at drinking so he’s not allowed”.

Imagine if that’s what the law actually said. That would be insane.

Why? Because Jeff is not the only bad drinker and you can’t keep track of all the bad drinkers. Even if you could keep track of them, wouldn’t you have better things to do with your time? It doesn’t matter if Jeff’s a bad drinker. It doesn’t matter if everybody’s a bad drinker. The law isn’t there to make everybody perfect in every way.

Adding laws shouldn’t be a pastime. It shouldn’t be something you do for fun. In fact, history tells us that it’s best to have as few laws as possible.

You are not their God. You don’t own them. The only reasonable thing to do is to let everybody drink despite the fact that a few people might ruin that freedom for the rest. And historically, that’s what has happened. If a person can’t control himself, no nanny-state is going to teach him to control himself by controlling him for him. I’m not saying, “abolish the drinking and driving laws” or anything like that, but can anybody remember how well the prohibition of alcohol worked? How well do you think people would have taken to alcohol being regulated by a special drug court?

A baby is not going to learn how to walk if you don’t give him/her a chance to walk.

With all this in mind, however, even though we have not shed this naive attitude, I will remind all of you that it is not a hindrance that few people think of this, for indeed times of great change are often ushered in by an irate minority. Remember that.

Cocaine = Speed = Ritalin = Coffee

Wikimedia Image

Another thought I had after reading the suggestion to have a drug court regulating pot is that I can’t count how many people I’ve seen lose a big chunk of their humanity simply from ingesting coffee all the time.

An argument that is sometimes given for the prohibition of these “harder” drugs is that people end up stealing to support their habit. First of all, caffeine is a drug. If coffee or cigarettes were very expensive, perhaps we’d see many more segments of the population stealing to support those habits as well (and indeed as the economy turns to crap, people will start to steal food from each other… is that any reason to outlaw food?)

The real reason that truly destructive narcotics like cocaine are illegal in the first place has nothing to do with the fact that cocaine may lead to destructive behaviour and nothing to do with any possible altruism on the part of your government. The reason harder (and more useless) drugs like cocaine are illegal is, again, to impose a monopoly on the narcotics.

Drug dealers generally don’t like that they might go to jail, but I’d be willing to bet that at least some of them love the cash they get to keep when they successfully stay out of jail and they might also love the price inflation that occurs when one of their “peers” (who they didn’t know, maybe) gets locked up.

Mike Adams was indeed accurate in raising the point that there is little difference between drugs like Ritalin vs. cocaine or meth. I can personally attest to this as six years ago I was doing cocaine every week for 3 months (or what was likely cocaine that dealers diluted with “incense powder”, baking soda, or other cocaine-looking things — another reason to legalize all drugs). I also had the opportunity to snort a line of Ritalin in those days and rest assured, the Ritalin high feels almost identical to the cocaine high. That’s right, folks. Most of these ignorant parents are basically giving their 9 year old kids cocaine in the form of Ritalin.

This happening all while the parents are completely oblivious that the coffee they drink every day produces the same effects/feelings as cocaine as well. People treat coffee like it’s water.

I’ve heard of people trying to “sober up”, after a night of drinking, by ingesting caffeine (as though being high on coffee is sobriety). Similarly, I’ve seen cocaine work wonders with respect to “sobering” drunk people up. A guy who is so drunk that he can barely walk or talk is literally a line or two away from coming off as though he has had almost no alcohol the entire night. I’ve seen this happen.

Wikimedia Image: cup of coffee (author: Assassingr)

While things like speed are more synthetic, the feeling of the high is basically the same. It is a travesty that so few people are aware of these things. Maybe someone more versed in chemistry would be able to split hairs here, but alas, the feeling of the high for these drugs is dauntingly similar.

Personally, caffeine makes me want to go to the washroom and take a dump, makes my hands shake, makes me feel nervous (when it wears off), and gives me the exact same “boost” that I got from cocaine back in the day. Could this be why cocaine was once an ingredient in Coca Cola?

I have caffeine as seldom as possible – maybe once every few months when no ginseng is around. Ginseng wakes me up without any of those bizarre side effects.

Personal Responsibility

I’m not going to lie – the pharmaceutical drug ads on TV are not helping the situation but I don’t think we have a drug culture because of ads on television. I submit to you that we have a drug culture because we want to have a drug culture.

Maybe we have a drug culture because drugs distract people and everyone’s too lazy and lacking in foresight to actually deal with the world’s problems. Maybe we choose to sedate ourselves and our children because we fear the responsibility we would have to take on when we realize how powerful we really are. We have this vague feeling that the longer we’ve thought a certain way the harder it is to change, however, I think too many people barely ever even try to change.

It seems to me that making it illegal to put drug advertisements on television would be a giant waste of time. Nobody (except for maybe victims of MK Ultra or some cruel thing like that) is forced at gunpoint to watch television. In general, we sit and waste our lives via our own free will. Let’s own up to that. We almost love the propaganda. More laws is not the answer.

Raising your child is your responsibility, not the TV’s responsibility and not the state’s responsibility. In fact, this type of Orwellian thought is the very reason the dictator in the novel 1984 is named “Big Brother”. It gets you used to the idea of feeling like you can trust the state and that it can replace your family. Arguably, globalists have been fairly successful in destroying the family and indeed this is one of their multifaceted tactics of global domination.

Let’s Get Real

Let’s stop pretending we’re that different from the people who dominate us. We should set an example and be the change we want to see.

Why are we so surprised?

Many of us now believe in karma, after all. How many of you have a cat that you’ve mutilated, euphemistically referring to that act as “spaying” or “fixing”? Hey, I’m not saying I’m better than you. I once got a veterinarian to “fix” a cat that I had too (when I was living on “auto-pilot” more). I’m just saying let’s be honest with ourselves.

How many of you have allowed your son (or daughter, in some places) to be victims of the barbaric act of circumcision?

How many of you have a gold fish in a tiny glass jail in your house?

How many of you don’t give two sh!ts when you see those poor lobsters at the grocery store living in conditions that I would call torture, as they are forced to be surrounded by their own crap and urine in a fluoride filled tank with their claws clamped shut, all these lobsters on top of one another in a mountain of misery, staring at artificial lights as they count down the days they have left?

You might think that’s funny or irrelevant, but in a world that is pure consciousness your intentions or negligence have an instantaneous affect on everything. You’re putting out bad vibes by not looking at the facts.

Sure, many other animals suffer as a result of stores like these existing and it’s definitely not always in-your-face like with the lobsters – people have the opportunity to separate “beef” from “cow” in this way – but I have never met anyone who has even mentioned this lobster abuse to me or what they think of it. I’ve seen people in front of fancy restaurants protesting with signs against foie gras being served (as they should – foie gras is an abomination), but never any love for the lobsters.

The fact that we can put up with this level of abuse right in front of our faces is, I think, a huge part of the problem. Just walking into a pet-store should kill anyone’s mood, but for some reason it doesn’t.

When I was young, I had a neighbour who “owned” a dog. The neighbour would let the small dog roam around in a tiny fenced-in jail-like area in the backyard but the dog also had some sort of electronic device on its collar that seemed to automatically electrocute the poor thing every time it barked. I would often hear the dog try to bark and then I would instantly hear the loud high pitched cry of pain that it let out upon getting zapped/tazed.

#1: How the hell would anybody give post-traumatic stress disorder to a rat?

#2: Do you really need to torture rats to find out pot’s effectiveness? I mean, it doesn’t grow everywhere for nothing and I’m sure you could have found many humans who had PTSD and simply asked them, “Does pot help you?”

The above video is funny, I’ll admit (I laughed) but it also underscores a sad reality. Equally important to scrutinizing the power structure of our civilization is our ability respect each other in the moment, on a day to day basis, so that we can remember what it is we’re trying to save in the first place.

It is in our best interest to act humanely to all the different creatures and spirits that inhabit our planet. Otherwise we are chasing our tails and we can look forward to wasting even more energy on a fabricated war on drugs that only serves to divide and conquer us.

By the way, the day I read the Snoop-arrest article my website registered 420 site-hits. If that’s not a synchronicity, I don’t know what is.

Amir Alwani is a psychonaut who makes metal, electronic and hip-hop music. He is also the founder and editor of the online independent media outlet known as Potent News.

The insane Drug War is the reason why I’m always harping on psychiatric drugs in the disinfo comments – I feel like people need to realize that psychiatric “medication” exists just to fill the void left by drug prohibition. Using drugs to enrich our lives is the most natural thing in the world for humans to do. It’s infuriating beyond belief that the average cattle get to numb themselves with their shitty synthetic uppers and stupefying tranquilizers, while simultaneously looking down on those of us who want to enrich our lives with something illegal.

And fuck the online legal high/”research chemical” market too. I’ve always suspected that people in high places are behind that whole scene. They’d be dumb not to be involved – the profit margin must be mindboggling. Those are the 21st century’s CIA ghetto drugs. Just let us have the real stuff.

axisofinfinity

check out the silk road. it’s got a lot of tools for spiritual and intellectual discovery

Nunzio X

Watch Bill Hicks’ bit on LSD and everything will be explained.

Anomaly_of_Anomie

i tripping balls right now cant read but like you get high ah ha ha ha AH !!

Apis

Legalize hallucinogens and pot. They tend to have life changing psychological effects on the user. Anyone can try these substances without worry of catching addiction. Anyone experiencing bad effects simply don’t wish to have the experience again and refrain in the future. Analgesics, uppers, and other addictive substances take away user’s free will via physical addiction (and the addiction comes on quite fast). Personal responsibility can only go so far. People can be addicted to many things: TV, video games, facebook, religion, etc. Taking these benign addictions away from the user will cause discomfort but will not lead to severe physical withdrawal. I’ve had too many friends addicted to uppers and opiates to think full legalization is in any way good for anybody. They lost control of themselves and wrecked their lives. The fewer people that succumb to this type of disease the better- ever if it means making the substances illegal. Laws against hallucinogens and pot seem to be a way for authority to make arrests of people who belong to a subversive culture. If cops want to make mass arrests outside of a festival or political event they can use drug sniffer dogs and make arrests for owning a substance commonly know to be held by people of that culture. Kind of makes you wonder why they haven’t made incense illegal.

PlantFan

Even though those bad drugs you mention have serious effects, your solution to “keep them illegal” is a failed one. First of all, what will you do with the people who DON’T destroy their lives and have used said drugs? Are they still criminals who need jail? No. Fail. Second, there are other ways to solve the problem that aren’t as pernicious. You can ban marketing, you can regulate sales strictly, you can provide healthier forms… with cocaine, for example, if you give addicts access to the natural unprocessed plant form, it may be enough for them, they may not need to concentrate it, just like people of Bolivia seem content to chew on the leaves instead of snorting up powder.

Papaver

This fear of “addiction” and the supposed life-ruining effects that inevitably follow from it is blown way out of proportion as a rationale for the drug war. Besides the obvious problem you create whenever you enforce your viewpoint on other people by threatening their lives, it’s not true.

Physical dependence or psychological dependence on anything (and you cite more than a few) does not “take away user’s free will,” and that goes for addiction to opiates or anything else. Withdrawal symptoms can be very unpleasant, even (with alcohol) potentially deadly, but they are not insurmountable. Dependence can be treated fairly easily. It’s done all the time. However, to sustain a massive Treatment Industry you need the threat of jail.

Consider one of the most addictive substances: nicotine/tobacco. Statistically, the odds of breaking the smoking habit are slimmer than getting off heroin. Yet the withdrawal syndrome doesn’t cause much in the way of “severe” or even painful symptoms. Even though people know it can seriously harm their health, they still do it. And where junkies have to shoot up every six hours or so, a pack a day cig habit means dosing something like every 45 minutes! Yet our society somehow manages to tolerate it, and we do it without threatening people with the abrupt destruction of their lives and the lives of those around them.

Instead, we offer people caught up by this terrible addiction unlimited chances and support to escape it *whenever they decide to do that*. We don’t say their humanity has been hollowed out by a demon, let’s treat them like animals, we are rational and approach the problem rationally, like civilized, enlightened creatures.

honeynutcornflakes

I would add MDMA (often found in ecstacy pills) to pot and psychedelics (arguably MDMA is a psychedelic, but just in case you didn’t categorise it as such). I think, the illegalisation of all three of these drugs do much more harm than if they were legalised.

Pot – let’s face it, shown to be relatively harmless (not completely, but definitely in comparison to the other addictive drugs like uppers/opiates)

Psychedelics – people generally only do these rarely, by definition. give you a sense of being and contentedness which is why they are being used in depression, PTSD, terminal illness etc

MDMA – also used in PTSD, and is NON-ADDICTIVE, came no. 18 out of 20 in dangerousness scale in scientific study comparing it with other drugs (less dangerous than alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and only more dangerous than Poppers and the Khat plant!), most deaths are due to adulterants like PMA and combinations (e.g. lethal when taken with AIDS medication) and heat stroke (this can easily be avoided by introducing ‘chillout’ rooms where clubbers cool off, and also (although very rarely these days) due to misinformation (e.g. Leah Betts). The problem with MDMA is that (along with cannabis) it is one of the most controversial (incorrectly) substances on the black market where 100% of deaths involving ecstacy (many of these do not even involve MDMA at all, but other things like PMA) are reported in the (UK) media meaning that these deaths are being very disproportionately represented. MDMA is also one of the most hated drugs by officials because in reality it is one of the least harmful and so propaganda has been brought in as a prohibition henchman. The likelihood of dying from taking MDMA is lower than that for horse riding (very well put by Prof David Nutt from the UK – incidentally, a statement that got him fired by the then home office secretary).

If no others, these three drugs deserve legalisation in order to minimise harm due to prohibition and also reduce harm from their potential harmful effects to users.

Grrammmpa

Comparing coffee to cocaine is utter bullshit . Come on!!

MoralDrift

not really…similar mechanisms of action. Like comparing codeine to morphine…still a comparison to be made

honeynutcornflakes

Surprisingly, the effects of simultaneously drinking a strong cup of caffeinated drink and smoking a cigarette are allegedly very similar in effect to snorting a line of cocaine. unbelievable as it may seem.

Calypso_1

That’s ok, lot’s of people fall for the baking soda/lidocaine scam.

Sirius Fnord

I am currently composing a scientific hypotheses on the integral role psychedelic and psychoactive substances played in the evolution of two subsets of pre modern human species which evolved from the same missing link and both sets eventual meeting and integration. Leading to the emergence of the first great civilisations. Any fellow scientific shamans and non shamans interested in helping.

PlantFan

Give psychedelic mushrooms to chimps in a controlled setting.

Tchoutoye

I agree with most, if not everything (tl;dr), in this article. The reason why articles like this contribute little is because they are too rational. Successful politics adhere to the irrational, be it hope or, more often, fear.

Simiantongue

On the part about Mike Adams and the difference between “legalization” and “decriminalization”.

Legalization very simply means authorized. Authorization is given or endowed, which denotes that the “right” to do something is strictly under the province of said authority. You are given permission from said authority to, lets say smoke marijuana, if it is “legalized”. Which also denotes that if something is allowed by said authority it can also be disallowed and is controlled under that authority. The “right”, as such, does not reside in people as unalienable. The “right” is or is not allowed under the province of said authority and this authority may act according to it’s dictates on the matter. The right to do whatever, as such, resides with the authority(government) not the people. Thus when it is “legalized” you are being given conditional dispensation not freedom.

Criminalization is not really the opposite of legalization. Not from the authorities point of view anyhow. Some people unthinkingly come to the conclusion “If something is criminalized I can’t do it. If it’s legalized I can. They are opposite terms”. Beyond that somewhat myopic interpretation, In any way that matters though they are not opposite terms.

Legalization and criminalization are just the distinction of something that IS, from something that IS NOT authorized by said authority. What is important is that they both give government the authority to act. Criminalization for instance by way of regulation and punishment. Legalization also gives government the authority to act, retaining the right so that it may act to tax, and/or regulate. The opposite of legalization and criminalization is unalienable right. The right to act is inherent in people not government. But in true newspeak fashion there is no easy word for that phrase in everyday nomenclature. If legalization and criminalization are two ways in which governments act, what is the opposite of the governments ability to act? See. So we are really somewhat more limited if were trying to think or even talk of the distinction.

People can often hold to the illusion that if something is legalized that “I have the freedom to do something”. No, in fact you have the authorities “dispensation” to do something, not the “freedom” to do something. Dispensation through legalization is the opposite of unalienable rights or freedom to do something. The underlying core philosophy of legalization is, that which is given by authority may be taken away or controlled by said authority. In legalization you are given permission to act within the parameters set by said authority and that permission could again be removed at the authorities discretion. Unalienable right means not to be separated, given or taken away.

On the other hand decriminalizing whatever had been criminalized, without also legalizing it, is the removal of the authorities ability to act either way. Said authority would not be able to regulate, tax, punish etc. It could take no action. The assumption would be that the right to act either way, to do something or not, would again lie solely with people. This is why you will never see decriminalization without legalization also. Authority does not relinquish control. (However if you’re a multimillion dollar corporation you can lease it)

If you wish to see legalization of drugs, you are essentially saying that you wish to have the ability to use drugs. However government will still have stewardship of that right and is allowing you to do so. Someone who wishes to see a “right” returned to people, depriving the government of the ability to act, having no control one way or the other, would seek strictly decriminalization. The removal of legal restrictions either way.

I feel a diatribe coming on about the advancement of governments ability to act through legalization and criminalization. Starting with how it took a constitutional amendment for the prohibition of alcohol, yet some few decades later the federal government assumed the authority to prohibit certain other drugs without one. An interesting turn of events. It’s a long screed so I’ll stop here.

PlantFan

> If you wish to see legalization of drugs, you are essentially saying that you wish to have the ability to use drugs.

I see your point above but this statement irks me. People who are drug users aren’t necessarily that self-centered in their motives behind legalization. What they see in the big picture is not their own freedom but the awakening/enlightenment/fulfillment/etc of society at large. I think it is a bigger wish for the masses to be free.

Yes, you can be free right here and now, if you choose to be. You don’t have to blindly accept the manmade authority systems attempted to be arbitrarily imposed on us all. But that doesn’t change the fact that a HUGE portion of humanity is under the thumbs of these systems. And generally speaking, psychedelics are what get your mind out of that system, so… it’s a catch-22. You grow up brainwashed to accept the system. The mental tools to free your mind are illegal. It’s not a simple free-will choice any longer. We truly live under sinister oppression.

Now if you want to get to the root of it all, it’s money. That a class of decrepit old jerks control the money supply and fund the systems of control and domination… they have infinite resources so long as everyone else values their point system. We have to either wake up people to stop turning evil for a paycheck or do something about that system – dismantle it, provide an alternative, or something, because it is the ultimate system of control on this planet – it more or less directly controls the government.

Simiantongue

” People who are drug users aren’t necessarily that self-centered in their motives behind legalization.”

Perhaps not self-centered at all. Read it as “the ability for everyone to use drug” if you like.

desertdookie

Don’t you all see? Decriminalization = Legalization of a potential multi-billion dollar hemp industry that would cripple oil and other hydrocarbon industries dominance over sectors of the world economy by the emergence of a carbohydrate industry. This stuff (male plant) is serious business and that’s why both were criminalized to begin with.

/a nation by the corporations and for the corporations

PlantFan

This is right on the mark. However I think we should reach a compromise solution with the anti-drug maniacs. They obviously don’t want them or their kids being tempted by “drugs” and will go psycho to prevent that. Let’s decriminalize, for starters, but let’s put the kibosh on mass marketing. Do we really need to jump from total oppression to an advertising free-for-all? I think there is a middle ground to be reached here.

honeynutcornflakes

yes i agree, mass marketing doesn’t help anyone. selling these substances should be done by the state (or a very controlled restricted business/market) where no advertising is spread where the only mention of these substances should be directly from the person you are buying it from or freely available CORRECT information from the internet (which should also be carefully controlled for myths/rumours/ridiculous statements/unhelpful advice). advertising works, people buy things because they have been *told* to (not a nice thought, but true all the same), marketing ventures should be avoided at all costs, but education is the key.

http://www.soundcloud.com/myconica Threedinium

Honestly I find the very idea of drugs like LSD and DMT being mass-marketed chilling to the core. Mybe not a rational angle I know but it feels goddamn wrong. Facebook ads for instant enlightenment… NO!! arrgghh!!

honeynutcornflakes

yeah. definitely need to avoid mass-marketing. i think marketing any kind of drug legal or illegal sends a chill down my spine. where’s the responsibility?

http://www.soundcloud.com/myconica Threedinium

Although now I’m thinking about it I don’t know which is worse… having the medical establishment get hold of them or the tycoons 😐

Pb

tl;dr. enjoy your time in rehab, DRuGGiE

Brian C

I like the troll who just had to post this. I hope he feels better now that he told the poster how he really feels lol.

More to the point, I agree wholeheartedly with the legalization of drugs. The Government saying you can or cannot cultivate anything from the earth is preposterous. Not only does the Government tell you what natural substances you can grow and/or cultivate but it eliminates all freedom of the individual if this erroneous decree is violated. People going to jail for growing a plant and consuming it, doesn’t that sound a little wrong to anyone.

Union Jack

Yes, sending someone to jail for using drugs does sound wrong. They need to be sent to a drug rehabilitation institution where their problem can actually be SOLVED, not made worse! The people who need to go to jail are the dealers and makers of drugs, and they too should be rehabilitated into productive, cooperative members of society.

Mahajohn

The notion that we should “legalize” all psychoactive drugs is foolish, short-sighted and ill-advised. It’s all well and good to suggest that a person should be able to smoke an innocent joint in the privacy of their home, or wherever the legalized drugs world would allow it, or even consume a bit of magic mushroom to re-set ones perceptual filters for the better. However, just as Cannabis is not alcohol, Cannibas isn’t belladonna. Namely, there are numerous psychoactive drugs that result in a sense of delerium or even complete depersonalization and detachment from bodily sensation, or any sense of consequence. This can definitely be characterized as an acute psychosis. Use of such drugs presents unacceptable RISK of risks to others through behavior that can neither be controlled or stopped by the actor. So, while it would be wise to decriminalize and legalize Cannabis, and perhaps some other substances, all drugs are not the same, and I see no reasonable cause to make ketamine or tropane alkaloids freely available.

Paparev

Belladonna is legal. To whatever extent it is an ingredient in prescription medicines, anyone who wants to technically break some federal law “controlling” it, can do so with impunity; the DEA puts zero effort into stopping people from ingesting belladonna. They also don’t seem too concerned with colchicine, amanita muscaria, syrian rue, digitalis, Jimson weed or hemlock.

The dangers/benefits associated with these substances are not hidden nor are they lied about in mass miseducation programs. That’s probably why so few people do these drugs and why there’s no need to waste time and energy making sure somebody else doesn’t do what you, personally, don’t like.

It’s not your business what other people do. They don’t need you to threaten them with years in a cage to prevent or promote any activity that doesn’t concern you. Claiming to do it “for their own good ” or to protect themselves from themselves is paternalistic arrogance to say the least.

honeynutcornflakes

ah. just noticed ive already been beaten to it by you. just adding to your well said comment then. cheers

honeynutcornflakes

psychoactives that induce delerium are often legal. look at Datura (contains scopolamine, hyoscyamine and atropine), Salvia Divinorum and Fly Agaric Mushrooms are all legal in the majority of places. Intuitively, this is because these types of drugs (deleriums) are very unpopular and therefore the risks are deemed very slight because no one wants to take them.

Riky Jazzercise

I love how no one bothers to point out how much alcohol shapes our culture. To a large extent our culture IS alcohol culture. Take a look at the popularity of sports. People work crap jobs doing shit they don’t want to do all week, and their release is to get drunk and yell at athletes. I love sports, but to try and pretend their popularity would be nearly what it is if other drugs like pot and psychedelics were legal is ridiculous. People would not give nearly as much of a shit.

As a musician, you’re a beer salesman. That’s what you are as much as you might try and delude yourself otherwise. You get invited to play shows at clubs so your friends and fans will come out and drink. If you don’t move enough booze, you won’t be invited back. If say, pot was legal and clubs could sell it, the culture would be totally different. A completely different type of band would florish. People buying weed are going to want a different variety of music than drunks. It’s funny because I have friends who don’t smoke pot. Their taste is completely different than mine. They like a lot of shit that I frankly think is terrible, because they’re looking for music to bind them to reality rather than escape it. Drunks want either brutal punk or metal, mysogynist hip hop, or songs they know that they can sing along with. Why do you think your best bet as a musician is playing covers if you want to make money? Drunk people want to hear songs they know, that they can sing along with. Clubs make money of alcohol sales. You do the math.

What’s also funny is that the fact that weed’s illegality does in fact prevent a shitton of people from trying or experiencing it. I’ve had a ton of friends throughout the years quit smoking weed because they’ve gotten older, started dating a girl who doesn’t approve, etc. I currently have a friend who’s quitting because he’s having a kid. We drink in front of children constantly, but you know, the idea of smoking pot in front of children is insanely taboo. Solely because it’s illegal. To think the illegality doesn’t have a substantial effect on people’s behavior is naive. People are disturbingly conformist, and I have literally known a ton of people who quit smoking pot, just to admittedly start drinking waaaaaaay more. What the fuck is that? My wife’s Dad is the most high strung dude in the universe. He used to love smoking pot when he was younger. I’ve tried to sell him some. The story I got was that the last time he had pot, he was so paranoid about getting busted, he literally buried it in his back yard. This is what the drug war does to people.

DeepCough

Not only should all drugs be legal, but there should be “NO NEW TAXES” on them, because the government wasted over $400 billion just trying to elimnate the “Scourges” of drug use, and they failed miserably. So until they pay back every single fucking cent of that money, they don’t deserve a single cent more.

Shelby Noeth

Wow, after I found this I felt that I now have hope to become a part of the pharma industry and regulate illegal drugs to make them safe for people to use. I also want to work with terminally ill patients who want to use acid or mushrooms. I used to be able to write like this, give my opinion and sow a other side of a subject many haven’s seen, but ever since i’ve been on anti-depressants I just can’t do it anymore.

I am on your side, fully. I hope more than anything we change the future for the better of EVERYONE.

And those of you against this;
I watched an episode of drugs inc. and saw an older man in constant pain from reoccurring cluster headaches. Although, if he takes mushrooms about every 3 months, he does not have to deal with these headaches. These headaches make him feel like he would rather die. Now, would you jail someone for that? I hope not. This is one of my many reasons

http://www.facebook.com/MorgueWh0re777 Summer Fralick

I like that this is saying legalize all drugs….but the majority of this article is about pot.
Other drugs have been demonized when they are not bad. Prohibition causes unsafe using conditions and more dangerous means of attainment. More needle exchange programs need to exist in the states.

Shelby Noeth

That’s my concern. I want to go to school for pharmacology and push for all drugs to adhere to our unalienable rights. That way, I could take part in making urrent illegal drugs much more safer to use.
“The opposite of legalization and criminalization is unalienable right. The right to act is inherent in people not government.”

Shelby Noeth

But, I do think it’s disappointing some people are convinced weed is not a drug. I mean, when Katt Williams says it, it’s more of a joke. But, be informed. It IS a drug. That is also a plant. That is also a medicine.

Malk

oh my god that bud looks scrumptious!!!
we all know the answer to this problem

Sytallix

Wow that was an incredible article, i’m not a drug user but I fully support all drugs becoming legal. As I see it now, keeping certain drugs illegal is nothing but a waste of time and money and causes more problems than it fixes.

Jc

OMG, learn some actual science and quit rambling like a stoner hippie. Your attempt to equivocate cocaine with caffeine isn’t just absurd, it’s the worst of your logical fallacies and does the pro-legalization movement no good. Get back to reality and stop trying to bring us all on board with your lifestyle choices.

Paparev

There is nothing wrong with his analysis on the comparative effects of stimulants, especially his observation that Ritalin is the one that most closely approximates the feeling you get from cocaine. At the low doses found in both coffee and coca tea I can personally attest they produce essentially identical effects, despite the fact they don’t work the same way and are different chemicals. Scientifically and logically, he’s spot on.

Lily Muenster

Hah Ha! Stopped reading here…
“We don’t truly have access to our own minds right now. Some of us do, but there is a huge effort to dumb all of us down and re-engineering us. Fluoride in our water supply destroying our third eye (pineal gland) is just one of manyexamples of this. ”
The stupid, it burns!

Guest

This is bullshit. Legalize ALL drugs? Did you forget that meth labs can blow up, resulting in death of the people in the house or building and the surrounding areas? I do think that shrooms and weed should be legal, because it’s your decision to do them,they are not addictive, and they are not man-made. Man-made or synthetic drugs; however, can affect other people, not just the person doing them (Similarly to alcohol).. and I see no reason to legalize those things when we have something like alcohol.

Paparev

Literally *tons* of methamphetamine are produced in the United States and around the world by pharmaceutical laboratories and they don’t blow up. Clandestine labs blow up for the same reasons people were poisoned by illicitly produced alcohol from homemade stills (which also sometimes blow up).

UnionJackJamesBond

“I have a right to ingest/smoke whatever I want and to explore the contents of “my own mind” in the process, so long as I am not hurting anyone else…”

I just googled “car crashes from pot” and just about every site that popped up said something about pot DOUBLING the risk of a car crash. That is JUST pot. The issue with legalizing drugs is exactly what the issue with legalizing alcohol ended up being; a HUGE spike in car crashes that STILL has not gone down completely! You legalize pot, or any drugs, and the same will result. And don’t try saying it won’t because time and again we have seen history repeat itself. One example, you’ll probably like this, is the recession we have right now due to the way our current capitalist system works. It is almost a complete repeat of The Great Depression. Of course, that is just one example, Google could easily provide others.

“When I came across the headline “Marijuana Prevents PTSD In Rats” I thought two things…”
I actually suffer from PTSD myself, and let me tell you, I don’t need pot to help me cope with it. Besides, there is also research that suggests that taking pot helps contribute to psychosis, a FAR worse mental health issue.

Now, onto this last point. Perhaps you believe that legalizing drugs will eliminate crime? I’m sorry to drop this on you, but it won’t. I have a businessman for a grandfather and he taught me a great deal about supply and demand and what have you. If you take away drugs from gangs, they will loose A LOT of money. Now, when they start loosing money, what do they do? What most businesses would do; find a new product. You get rid of pot, and gangs will switch to prostitution. Get rid of that, and they will switch to child porn. It is a burtal and horrid truth, but drug supporters need to get this through their head; Crime = Business!

honeynutcornflakes

claiming that we should not end prohibition because criminals will move on to another sort of crime is NOT a reason to retain prohibition. If bananas were illegal and criminals were “dealing” in bananas it would be a no-go statement saying that we should keep bananas illegal because otherwise they will move on to something else. Fairtrade, import/export restrictions to protect within country farmers and tax are very important reasons to avoid illegalising bananas. For similar reasons, drug deaths due to propaganda (e.g. Leah Betts), deaths due to poison-contaminated drugs (e.g. Barry Kidston and others due to MPTP in heroin, or PMA overdose in ecstacy pills in many people throughout the world not realising they are not taking what they think they are taking), preventing gangs from monopolising drug supply businesses, bootlegging where low grade drugs are consumed with possible more-harmful consequences than if they were high grade, drug-related violence due to cartels or gang warfare (N.B. I could go on and on and on) are MAJOR REASONS TO REPEAL prohibition.

Crime is business, I agree, but I’m pretty certain that even if dealers of child porn forced it down our throats, it still wouldn’t take. That goes with sex slavery too, it’s just not going to take. These things are never going to get popular for very obvious reasons.

Union Jack

“claiming that we should not end prohibition because criminals will move on to another sort of crime is NOT a reason to retain prohibition”. Correction; it is not THE reason to retain prohibition, it is only another logical part. The main reason is that drugs are dangerous and should not be taken, despite someone’s personal preference. If bananas were illegal I’d legalize them because they have no danger to the population. If criminals moved on to the next thing, then we would deal with that. I’ll give you a better for instance, which would be Cuban cigars. I’d likely legalize them, since smoking isn’t illegal and the basis is a trade embargo, and when criminals move on to the next thing, drugs for instance, I’ll start cracking down on them there. Deaths related to either using drugs or the drug business are not a reason to legalize them, it is a reason to fight the criminals harder. If they are willing to do things that could kill innocent people, they wil do it even if you do legalize drugs. What actions they are willing to take will not change. Also, I’m not talking about letting gangs have a monopoly on the drug industry, I’m talking about destroying the drug industry. Those drug cartels in Mexico act like African war lords. So, I propose that it is time to deal with them just like we would deal with a war criminal; with an actual army. Say what you will, say that this idea will not work, it makes no difference to me. The truth is, these cartels have something that regular gangs in America, Canada and other first world nations don’t have; a huge amount of power. Do you think that they will give that up just becase you legalize drugs? Listen, they have made no moves (that I have heard of) to suppress the movement to legalize drugs. Why? I don’t even no, but I promise you it means they aren’t afraid. Probably because they have enough money now to extort the government into giving them money off of legal drugs.

Oh, and on to your last point too. I know that not everyone (probably a very large amount of people in fact) will not go for child porn, but some will. See, this isn’t about doing things that are illegal, this is about doing something that will give you the next best kick. Once you’ve tried drugs and gotten bored, where do you go? Admittedly, not many people will follow this trend, but some will. And the more and more that something is created and circulated, the more people get interested in it, and maybe even go to try it out, see if they like it. Fact is, why take any chances? If we never let it get to that point, it (idealy) won’t ever be a problem.

There really isn’t much else to say on this topic, only that this topic holds a lot of people’s lives in the balance. On one side, the legalizing one, we could legalize drugs and hope away the drug dealers. One the other side, the criminalizing one, we could keep them illegal, start dealing with the criminals properly, and start helping people to stay away from drugs, hopefully resulting in less crime, less physical and mental issues from drugs, and hopefully lower chances in organized criminal organizations getting involved in much more dangerous operations. Of course, I am a little biased, but I have taken a logical look at this. Your side is baseing it’s arguments on the hopes that things go idealy. Well, things don’t always go that way. The same thing could be said for my side as well, but there are far more benefits to my side. Your side? Well you get to do whatever drugs you like (which will damage you) and nobody can tell you no. Not a whole lot else you can offer that my side can’t (like lower crime rates). And as for the economy? Well, we’ve survived without a drug industry so far, so I can’t honestly say that makes a difference.

Chjello

Incredible Article!

http://www.cigarette-store.org/ Cigarea

Taxing the hell out of drugs would be a horrible idea, a major point of
legalization is to dramatically lower the price of drugs so that people
don’t commit crimes to get them and so that drug dealers have no way to
stay in business, as legitimate sellers out-compete them. If taxes are
too high, neither of those goals will be accomplished. That is the
biggest danger of legalkization, the temptation to overtax. No commodity
should ever be taxed at higher than 10% of their retail price, let
alone at over 100% like cigarettes are now.

Brianmendezl25

Can someone please explain to me how I became a criminal when I’ve never done harm to anyone or anything? Huh!

I wholeheartedly agree. There aren’t any restrictions on what other things you can grow in your garden — you say tomato, I say cannabis. There really needs to be a laissez-faire approach to what individuals do in their own private lives. But we can’t even get the idiot legislators to agree that prohibitions on gay marriage are unconstitutional violations of privacy — somehow I am not optimistic about the future of drug legalization.

Only if there’s profit for the big-money lobbyists to corrupt it for the regular people. And to the poster who said “pot is not belladonna,” well, what concern is it of anyone else, not only in how I live my life but in fact whether or not I do? Who is the government or anyone else to stop me from doing something that causes no harm to anyone else — including suicide? As long as I don’t force-feed anything down anyone else’s throat, Uncle Scam and the fundie retards with their “the body is a temple of God” crap should just leave me alone and stay the hell out of my greenhouse. And let me be buried in the earth without having to bother with expensive funeral costs, insurance payouts, or “proper” autopsies by the M.E. department. Give me liberty: leave me death.

Thing is, suicide causes the loss of a taxpayer — using death to escape taxes is a grievous sin and a crazy person’s act that apparently requires psychiatric hospitalization. Especially if it’s a grad student with no offspring who dies before paying off his/her student loans. In other words, even belladonna is a cut into American profits. /sarcasm

Union Jack

The whole reason that cannabis should be illegal is that it DOES affect other people! Now, before anyone pulls the whole “well, alcohol causes more car crashes than pot” rehtoric, I would like to point out that alcohol is legal, pot is not. Therefore, more people drink alcohol because it is more accessible. Also, the police focus more time on catching people with pot than they do on people drinking and driving. All of that can basically be summarized as; there are fewer car crashes relating to the use of pot because fewer people are driving while under the influence of pot. Now, next thing; yes, you committing suicide or doing drugs and dying DOES have a negative impact on society! Why? Well, it’s not the taxes, but if half the world’s population and and killed themselves, what kind of effect would that have on the continuation of the human race? Listen, we don’t have morals for no reason, we have them because we lack instinct. If we had instincts, we wouldn’t be smoking pot (even if we had the capacity to) because it isn’t good for us! Now, let’s take another think here. Pot is known to have hugely negative effects, not really on a person’s body, but on their mind. These negative effects, like psychosis, can be passed on in your blood line to your kids. Now, if 80% of the people in America were frequent pot users, and they obtained mental sicknesses accordingly, if they all had children, 80% of the next generation could come out with severe mental disorders. And before you ask, someone flying off the handle and trying to kill somone out of paranoia is why psychosis is a severe mental disorder. The funniest thing is you pot heads. Because you are already doing the drug, you’ve made yourselves EXTREMELY stupid (unable to think logically), paranoid about Big Brother sticking you in a prison, and evidently slaves to the very drug you use, which is evident in how quickly you step up to try and defend it. If you were not already messed up by the drug, you would have realized the far reaching consequences of drug legalization and would have opposed it. You would have realized that this isn’t an issue of morality, or personal taste (although some people try and make it about both, admittedly), but the true issue is the survival of the human race. Of course, drugs have already made you slaves, so all you can think about is YOUR right to smoke them, YOUR right to do what you want, YOUR right to some idiotic “liberty”. It’s all about yourself, you have given no thought to anyone but yourself and your drug. This is why nobody should listen to you. Not because of what you support, but because of why you support it. Also, before you go into it “lowering crime”, I’d like to ask all of you this; if legalizing some drugs would kill some business for drug dealers, then why have none of them even tried bribing some of the legalization supporters to keep them quiet? Legalize pot, people will smoke a lot of it, get bored, and then look for the next best things, like meth, crack, heroin, E, ketamine, and the list goes on. I’m not saying doing one drugs addicts you to all, no what I am saying is that you get addicted to the pleasure of drugs like pot, and then one day that pleasure just isn’t enough, so you need more. The addiction to endorphins. And that, dear children, is why drug dealers don’t care. They will be waiting to provide the next best kick of whatever is still illegal. Go down the line enough, and you might just be staring at the ugly face of organized crime groups dedicated to child porn. Think we should legalize that too? Think with your brain people, not with your bong.

honeynutcornflakes

Drink driving is MUCH more dangerous than cannabis-driving, im not advocating either because they are both dangerous, but essentially driving whilst drunk is the cause of many more accidents than driving whilst on cannabis and is nothing to do with how many take either drug, this is on a drug-by-drug basis. FACT.

I’d like to see someone try and commit suicide by getting fatally stoned. I can guarantee you, it will take as long as it does to die from old age. FACT.

We do have instincts, we are animals like all the other animals, not sure where you got the idea that we don’t from to be honest. With that said, instincts in your case tell you not to smoke pot – if this is the case, then maybe you should avoid smoking it. Instincts in another person’s case tell them that smoking pot every now and again is enjoyable – if this is the case, then maybe they should give it a go if it isn’t harming them. Instincts in an addicts case tell them that they should keep smoking pot every hour of the day – if this is the case, a little bit of intervention by addiction clinics and psychologists may be a good idea for these people in order to help them avoid maladaptive addictive behaviour (just like an alcoholic would have under the present system). Im not saying trust your instincts at all. But I am saying that sometimes people’s instincts can harm themselves and others but others’ instincts aren’t harming anyone. Its all subjective.

Recent scientific research states that in order to avoid ONE SINGLE CASE of schizophrenia/psychosis (due to cannabis) you would have to prevent around 5000 males from ever smoking cannabis, or 6000 females. Furthermore, although there may be some interaction, the case for cannabis induced psychosis is very weak, the above figures indicate that a total prohibition on cannabis might not be the best idea considering that 4999 males do not develop psychosis due to cannabis. Play around with it as much as you want, the evidence is very weak indeed.

Concerning the 80% and the offspring having mental disorders, I am not overly sure what you are pertaining to, maybe epigenetics? In that case, consider the above statement. Also, epigenetics depends on maladaptive parenting/behaviour, by far something that the average pot smoker is subjected to or subjects someone to. This is like saying “people who drink beat their children” – something that would be offensive to most parents who drink. Not many people who drink become aggressive to their children as a result.

By directly accusing people who take drugs with ridiculous statements like being extremely stupid etc has moved your argument down a few rungs unfortunately. There are many people who take drugs that oppose prohibiton and there are many people who do not take drugs that oppose prohibition. Maybe have a look at Professor David Nutt, an example of someone who has never taken any illegal substance – maybe this is surprising to you, but he is pretty definitive on his position in the debate on the war on drugs.

Recent research has suggested that intelligence increases the likelihood of trying drugs. Im not saying that intelligence means you take drugs. Most intelligent people do not take drugs, in a similar way to most people not taking drugs. But, there is evidence that intelligence increases the likelihood – something that needs more research for sure.

Alcohol prohibition (if counterintuitively) increases every type of crime including organised crime, bootlegging, theft, burglaries, homicides, assault and battery, and even child abuse strangely enough. If you don’t believe me, look it up. Drug addiction also increased the amount of money spent on trying to contain the crime by enforcing the police. The same could be said for other drug prohibitions today. Concerning bribing the legalisation people, there are enough US officials (evidently) that still oppose legalisation for prohibition to continue, have you asked yourself whether THEY are getting bribed/have ulterior motives?

Clinical addiction is not something as rampant as you might presume. Merely trying a drug does not mean you are addicted (e.g. your first drink of alcohol does not end up with you becoming an alcoholic and for most people will never do). Additionally, addiction is simply a model of behaviour that can be applied to every behaviour in the human/animal repertoire. e.g. gaming, gambling, extreme sports, going to the gym, eating, drinking soft drinks etc are all things that become addictive if you are not careful, what you gonna do? illegalise all of them? Only very recently it was reported in the news that a New Zealand woman had died with the main cause due to an addiction to drinking Coca Cola i.e. heart failure, caffeine. Pretty much everything you can think of CAN BE addictive.

If drugs were legal, dealers wouldn’t be trying to force their product down our throats. Especially contaminated/adulterated drugs with poisons like PMA, MPTP, strychnine etc (please look these up for details). If drugs were legal then the majority of people wouldn’t be trying to find potentially dangerous legal-high alternatives (that have not been tried/tested).

I’m not overly sure how you managed to accuse pro-legalisers of advocating child porn and im not sure where you’re going with that really?

Finally, scientific research has shown that post-legalisation of medical marijuana states have observed a drop in suicide rates in a similar rate each time a state passes the law – conneticut will be next, let’s watch the stats roll… This could be due to 1) more people smoking marijuana or 2) less people drinking alcohol or 3) combination. It’s open to more speculation, but the stats are interesting and they are there.

Think with your heads people, we must strive for progress, make the world better for all. When something doesn’t work, it is our perogative to change it and make it better.

Union Jack

“Fact” 1: My friend, like I said before, drinking and driving is far more prevelant, and therefore far more dangerous. Also, unlike alcohol, it doesn’t seem to dampen your “Cop perception” as much, so you are more likely to be a little more “careful”. At the end of the day though, pot is still not legal, therefore it is less widely used, therefore we do not have adequate evidence.
“Fact” 2: Fatally stoned from pot? No, it won’t happen. Fatally stoned from most other drugs? Yeah, it can happen; meth, e, and many other drugs are proof of that. However, the danger of using pot isn’t in getting “fatally stoned”, it’s what it will do to you, and even your decendents, in the long run.
Paragraph 3: Humans have instincts? XD Please, tell me more about the last time you chased after a moose, killed it with your “claws and teeth” and then ate it’s flesh raw. Listen, humans do not have instincts. We may have needs, wants, reflexes, and even cravings, but we do not have instincts. Instincts do not make us build cars, computers, houses, or cities. We have need for these things, true, but it is our brains that make them a reality. Inventiveness and creativity make these things happen. And before you say that monkey’s use tools to do things, let me remind you that some movie zombies have also used “tools” to kill us. That doesn’t show higher thinking, or even some relation between what we do and what monkys do, that just shows that they have learnt how to work around things. A tiger might do something similar, like walking over a log to cross a river, rather than swimming through it. Anyways, I digress. Please, don’t pull the whole “humans are animals” argument into this. I have seen that discussion way to many times and it always ends the same way. Please, don’t expect different results. Now, back on topic, smoking pot and enjoying it isn’t instinct, it is endorphins. Endorphins give us pleasure, and sometimes when we get enough of them to get us addicted to that pleasure (but sometimes, with things like E, we can get a chemical addiction). This reason, or the second one, is why people become addicted to things like meth. Their instincts aren’t telling them it is killing them though, hence why they end up dying from the stuff. Instincts would tell them not to do it in the first place, but they do it anyways without care. That is not instinctual, their is only one word to describe what that is; human. Also, you talk about people continuing on the use of drugs if it “isn’t harming them”, but drugs always do, maybe not physically, but they are still causing harm regardless. Also, on the topic of addicts malforming their “instincts”, that isn’t instincts. In fact, it is only part of the one thing I was going to mention which is judgement. Poor judgement can have an effect on them becoming addicted, but the rest is a little bit of a dependency on the chemicals in the drugs and on the endorphins those drugs can bring out. Although I do agree, intervention is a good idea. A great one actually.
Paragraph 4: Scientific research is constantly digging up new information. Whatever you found may seem true, but it could be a complete missrepresentation of the real statistics. Also, I would like to see where this information comes from. And as for preventing all those people from smoking pot, it isn’t to difficult when your government tires a little harder to keep people from getting a hold of it. If no one smoked pot, actually if no one did drugs entirely, then there would be no problem. The problem isn’t that drugs are being sold, the problem is that they are being used. If no one uses them, who’s going to buy them? That, my friend, is how you kill an organized criminal organization. Also, so what if only one person in 5000 develops psychosis? That is a huge number if millions of people were using it (which would happen if legalized). Even if it was only one person, why would you intentionally give yourself a mental disorder? The fact that it can give you one is reason enough to not make it legal! There is no sense to that argument! It makes people crazy, ergo it is bad, ergo people should not use it, ergo it should be illegal. Savvy?
Paragraph 5: ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Um, what are you talking about? If your trying to tell me that my argument was that parents who smoke pot will have kids that will, you are wrong. Parents that smoke pot can obtain a mental disorder that can genetically be passed on to their children. Also, parents who were heavy pot users at the time the conceive a child are more likely to have a child come out with birth defects (mental illness being one of them). Also, to recap on the last paragraph, i live in a town of about 5000 people, and their are more than a few people with mental disorders from smoking pot. A lot of the time you can tell because they are paranoid and try avidly to defend their substance of choice (which gets rater irrational at times, let me tell you).
Paragraph 6: Would you like me to rephrase? People that use drugs are stupid. Drugs hurt your body, ergo if you use them you are intentionally hurting your body, hurting yourself intentionally is commonly seen as a stupid and irrational practice. Care to disagree? Anyways, simply because some sort of doctor tells you legalizing drugs is smart doesn’t mean it is smart. It also doesn’t make him smart. His realm is in medicine and science, not politics and the judicial system. In that realm, he may be stupid, although I won’t come out and say that a man I have not met or heard anything of is stupid. Also, it may surprise you that I am pretty definitive on my stance on the war on drugs. Legalization = useless. Crime isn’t about selling drugs. It is about two things. Money, and power, and gangs will kill to keep those things. Wish it away all you want, but this is the reality, and people need to get a good taste of it.
Paragraph 7: Intelligence and curiosity are very good friends, perhaps even sisters. It’s of no surprise that they may go hand in hand. This explains why most of those TV nuclear families from the 50’s didn’t do a whole lot. They were stupid and liked to keep things simple by listening to Big Brother, and I’m not talking about Biff Johnson. XD
Paragraph 8: I doubt your evidence to be honest, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. During the time when prohibition existed, I can imagine that being segregated from alcohol for some people would be like men being segregated from women in prison. Alcohol may have given people a certain pleasure they needed, but that was also likely because of a certain event that occurred only a couple years before prohibition; little something called World War 1. Anyways, but I can recall there being a much higher portion of things like child abuse, theft, assault and other things during the 80’s, a period when alcohol was legal. Many crimes were committed due to alcohol in fact. But how drugs would connect to child abuse is beyond me. I suggest you take a better look at your research. You may even find that the cause is the usage of drugs.
Paragraph 9: Actually, becoming addicted on the first try of something, even alcohol, probably happens more than you think, and this is for two reasons. 1) Some people, because of their body make up, have become addicted to the slightest things after just one try. Each person is different, which is why you cannot say no one gets addicted on the first try of something (especially since many drug counsellors have suggested that this has happened a number of times). As for things like gaming, gambling, etc. they aren’t usually as big a problem as drugs. Before you critique me on that, let me explain. Playing video games constantly won’t give you psychosis (although it may affect people with psychosis), so it isn’t as much of an issue. Gambling could, and SHOULD, be more regulated to ensure that people don’t lose all their money. To also help with these addictions though, it is important to educate people on spotting the signs of a person with an addictive personality. Then, it becomes important to help the people with the addictions to get help. There is a lot that can be done with these things, but drugs present more physical and mental damage than video games do.
Paragraph 10: If you legalize drugs, dealers will just look for another way to make a profit. Biggest way to do that? Start dealing to kids. You’ll likely put an age restriction on drugs, but dealers can still bootleg for kids. What will you do then? Lower the age to take drugs? I’m sure I don’t need to explain the dangers there. Also, there are some “legal highs” I believe some people mentioned like salvia. My fix? Ban that too. If people want to look for legal highs, then we need to start educating people on the dangers of these things. Also, there are ways of better regulating the system to make sure that people aren’t getting hold of things like perscription drugs, but it is something to work on. Also, you mentioned dealers poisioning drugs, and I understand your concern. But once more, this issue would not be an issue if no one was buying drugs! We need to crack down harder on finding people using it. This doesn’t mean we need to punish them, but we need to find them and help them, then the issue can be more properly dealt with. Also consider though, these issues could happen with other things too, like slipping date rape into someone’s drink at a party. These things happen, but legalizing drugs won’t stop this issue, it will just make it adapt.
Paragraph 11: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What!?!? I said that pro-legalizers support child porn? Did you read anything I said, or are you just an American politician, looking to twist my words to your own ridiculous whim? I said that you can keep legalizing things, but criminal organizations, NOT PRO-LEGALIZERS, will find other things that ARE illegal to make a profit off of. So, if you keep legalizing things, eventually you will get some sick and twisted criminal organization that is willing to make child porn and make a profit off of it. Then I asked, would you legalize child porn too? It is already a big market, and sick people are making a profit on it. Should we legalize it and make it taxable? Maybe child porn makers will stop killing children if we just legalized it? So tell me, do you think child porn should be legal? Well? Do you? I sure don’t, and I feel no guilt for saying I would kill a human being for saying we should legalize it. The whole point to what I was saying, my friend, was that criminal organizations want money. You legalize drugs, they lose money. What do they do? Look for something else to sell. That is how business works, and crime is a business.
Paragraph 12: 4) It could be that people are too stoned to care about killing themselves, 5) your stats are wrong, or 6) their suicide was based on something that the drugs could eliminate (ie. extreme and chronic pain). I do pity people that have chronic pain, I actually had a cousin who killed himself due to pain and pain killer like morphine, and I would be irrational to completely exclude the use of pot for medical purposes. I would rather find an alternative to drugs, like homeopathic remedies (although I suppose some would say pot is one), but if nothing can be found, then medical pot may be the only choice left. Does supporting that make me a hypocrite? No. I only want what is best for my fellow man, and recreational use of narcotics is not in our best interests. Use for medical reasons? Well, there may be some justification.
Lucky Paragraph 13: I couldn’t agree with your statement more. However, how can we think with our heads when drugs cloud them? Progress isn’t legalizing drugs, progress is doing what will benefit the human race at the end of the day. Legalizing drugs will have a negative impact on many people (mostly their bodies), it will be expensive to look after (especially if people get hurt or obtain a mental illness) and it will not decrease crime. There are no benefits. The best way to fix this? People need to stop using drugs, then drug dealers will have no business, then we can focus on more important matters, like health care, the environment, and all other crimes.
Last note: Sorry if I was offensive at all in this, but this is a topic that I am very passionate on. I hope you understand that anything offensive I may have said was in the heat of the moment. All of my point though aren’t just my feelings, they are my thoughts, thoughts that have been building up for years, getting ready to come to proper fruition. I don’t have all the answers or solutions, but I hope that soon enough I’ll be able to refine some better ones. Also, thank you for your arguments, I hope that they will help me refine those better answers I feel I still need.

St

The majority of this article was pretty solid.. up until your last section, which seemed very yuppy like, focusing mostly on how we “abuse” animals. This has no bearing on the rest of the article, and frankly, if you believe in the freedom of drug use like you spout through the entire article, you should believe in the freedom of a capitalistic society in which I can do whatever the hell I want with my lobsters, damnit.

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This is ludicrous to even think of legalizing all drugs. This would cause more harm than good without a doubt. boise plumber People should learn to deal with problems in a way that doesn’t alter their state. It’s kind of a cop out in my opinion that you can just turn to simple pill or smoke something to get away from your problems. This is harmful to society and will increase crime.